Tom in Iraq as a Military Observer

Thursday, February 23, 2017

The qualities of reason and sound mind have left the
country. I would get out too if I knew
what they did. The sad thing is that I
do know.

Our courts—United States of America courts—will be or
perhaps are entertaining arguments about who has constitutional rights;
specifically, do you even have to reside in the country to have right
guaranteed under our constitution. Many
who live here and are not citizens have constitutional rights. Whether that was the founder’s intent or not,
the courts have said that they do.

But what about someone who is not a citizen and has never
been to this nation—do they have constitutional rights? On its face, it seems crazy, but the courts
have ventured far beyond their legitimate domain in their recent findings
concerning immigration and national security, so what’s a little more craziness
on top of that?

Does someone in Afghanistan or western Kenya who would like
to come to the United States have constitutional rights under the supreme law
of our land? Do two Ukrainian soldiers
who get in a bar fight over the quality of the vodka have the right against
self-incrimination and should we get them a court appointed lawyer if they can’t
afford one?

I am trying hard to be facetious, but at this moment some
attorney full of vigor but short of standing and legitimate argument is adding
my last paragraph to his brief. We have
come to the brink of insanity and insanity—desiring to retain some dignity—will
have nothing to do with us.

This is the question that I pose to those desiring to grant constitutional
rights to anyone and everyone on the planet:

Why do you believe that a child still in the mother’s womb
has no constitutional rights? Is the
membrane between the mother’s body and the world that awaits so much more
substantial that an international boundary?

It seems that somebody has already built a 30 foot wall but it is not on
the Mexican border.

How can we consider it constitutional to kill a child that
is 9 months old, within hours of delivery, because it has not entered the air
breathing world in which we exist?

How can someone on the other side of the planet who made
have only heard of America have rights that a child so close to delivery does
not have?

The mute button on my television remote is almost worn out,
and it is the most important among the dozens of functions that this small
device performs. Do we realize how far
from any standard of reasonableness we have come in this country? I speak now of the rush to condemn certain
actions.

Bad things happen in this world. Evil is still at work. People do terrible things, but does the
President of the United States really have to comment on all of them? Why can’t the people of this nation be
outraged enough at a desecration of something sacred without the help of the
chief executive. Instead of counting the
minutes between the event and the eventual statement, could we not use our time
and efforts to lend some support to the victims. Perhaps we could have organized protests
against the offenders, even if we have yet to find them. That would at least satisfy our propensity to
protest things that portend whatever doomsday the protesters see on the
horizon.

Perhaps the real news is not how long was it before the
President said something official and talking heads analyzed its sufficiency;
but the real news is what is happening to catch the offenders? Silly
me—who wants to follow that story? Who
is helping with restoration? Sorry, that will not pay the empaneled bank
of consultants. How can the common
person who wants to be something other than outraged, actually do something to
help? C’mon, that’s a link on the website, not news. Who is already doing
something to help that deserves some recognition? That
surely won’t satisfy our appetite for criticism.

The 24-hour news cycle has created
an epidemic of diarrhea of the mouth.
There are no new facts or tangible information going into the system but
there is no slowdown on the outward flow of blarney.

For now, it’s just the mute
button. My next step will be to identify
the sponsors of these broadcasts and boycott their products, and encourage
others to do so. I hope I do not have to
write the eulogy for the press that once understood its privileged standing in
this nation. I am optimistic but not
blind. We as a nation crave blame and
vitriol more than truth. The media is
simply our drug dealer.

How I long for that bygone day
that when there was nothing more of substance to say, you stopped talking. You stopped talking! This small nugget of wisdom has surely been
expunged from the journalism schools of our land.

Oh, how I long for the days of the
test pattern that pronounced with certainty and even a little dignity that
programming was completed for this day.

Friday, February 3, 2017

Darkness has come to America and we have embraced it. It is not Donald Trump. It is not the protests that seem to pop up
everywhere in response to everything. It
is not the media trying to fill a 24 hour a day news broadcast by manufacturing
news out of nuance.

It is the people of
this nation that have invited darkness into their lives.

We have stopped conversing with each other. Now we only target those that disagree with
us and demonize them. We no longer
discuss the issues. There are surely
conversations to be had on defense and immigration and education and so many
other issues; but nobody cares to engage the issues. We muster a minority of the facts then just
take cheap shots at those whose thoughts differ from our own.

We fear discussion.
We have lost the ability to listen to each other. We respect neither the high offices of our
officials nor our peers who elected them nor those who hoped that others might
prevail.

We have become a small-minded people. That does not mean we lack intelligence. We lack the wisdom to use our intelligence to
advance our nation and our culture and the common good to a better place. We have chosen extreme divisiveness over the
divine application of our diversity.

In the process, we have placed our liberty at risk. Self-government is work, not complaining and
demonizing those who disagree, but finding ways to do things that work for the
common good.

The pendulum of politics swings left and right. The wise see this and know that balance is
not something that exists at any given time, but over time. The foolish can see only the moment before
them and rail against any and everything that they don’t like.

In this distrust of a system of government that has not only
prevailed for over two centuries but done so continuing the blessings of
liberty, we set the stage for self-destruction.
In this ubiquitous demonizing of individuals who hold different perspectives
of how to continue this Grand Experiment, we accelerate the demise of our
democratic republic.

I for one am not ready to discard what our founders embraced
so dearly and until this current century, we as Americans preserved as part of
our patriotic duty. The time to set
aside acrimony and vitriol is now.
Bitterness and hatred towards our elected officials must end. The civil and patriotic way to object is the
ballot box and we must honor the result of our peaceful transition of power or
know that we are destined to lose it altogether.

For decades, we were light unto the world. Now we embrace darkness. Give those elected a chance to do what they
said they would do even if their approaches are different. Stop demonizing each other because we
disagree. Civil discourse must prevail
among the millions of Americans who are blessed to live in the liberty that we
know.

So many around the world look to us as the example of how to
live in a free society. We as the people
of this great nation are setting a terrible example for those in the rest of
the world that only dream of liberty. We
must once again be a light to this world.

Let us set aside our selfishness, our self-pity, and our childish
behavior and model civil discourse. Let
us respect each other again though we may differ in almost every thought or
philosophy. Let’s be the American people
that we want our grandchildren to model their lives after.

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Ten Talents: A Play in 3 Acts

Many years ago, make that almost four decades ago, I wrote the unofficial school newspaper. Its name was The Biased Observer. As the name would indicate, it was more a look at events of the week through one set of eyes than any attempt to objectively report the news. The news was what old people watched. I was more concerned with issues closer to the heartbeat of humanity, such as how many times in one week was a high school cafeteria allowed to serve beans as the main course.

Through the years, I acquired some higher education, experience in many cultures, and some insight as to the workings of the mind. Today, I teach thinking skills and creativity among my other passions.

One thing that I have learned is that you just cannot look at something objectively. If someone says, let's look at this objectively, they mean let's look at this through my view of objectivity. We all perceive our surroundings differently. In parallel thinking, we separate the elements of thinking and focus on each of them separately and the product is a much more objective (and considerably more effective) examination of a topic or issue. Even with these specific tools, we never truly get to objectivity. Parallel Thinking enables us to broaden our base of objectivity, but we should realize that objectivity cannot be fully obtained. When I first used The Biased Observer as a title for my periodic accounts of the world, its purpose was to relieve me from any responsibility to apply critical examination to any of the topics I wanted to discuss.

I'll revive the title in this column as a realization that no matter how much objective effort is applied to a topic, it will always retain much of the bias of its author. But much like variety, the author's bias can be the spice of life.

This column will focus on a variety of topics, each seasoned with an assortment of spices. Its intent is to inspire, provoke, and occasional provide some relief from the issues of the week. I think you will enjoy it, but then again, I am a little biased.

A must read for any commanding officer.

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About Me

Tom Spence is the pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Burns Flat, Oklahoma. He is a retired Marine Corps officer, published author, and occasionally catches a shot of something that just says Oklahoma.